


Start From Zero

by ButterfliesAndBluebells



Category: Kuroshitsuji | Black Butler
Genre: Cielois - Freeform, Fantasy AU, Flashbacks of Rape, Fluff, Gore, Graphic Scenes Of Violence, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Modern AU, Non-human characters, Return by Death, and a few in chapter one, ciel is not out of character in this, dirty jokes later on, he's also gonna die alot in this, he's just gonna suffer a lot, i am making this op as i go along dear god we are all in for a wild ride if you even read this, i am using child o!ciel's personality so his current personality slowly develops as the plot goes on, it will only be implied and referenced to, only tagged as underage because of the relationship, re:zero au, starting life in another world, there won't be any acutal smut, trigger warning, you can get attached
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2019-01-20
Packaged: 2019-08-27 10:18:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16700605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ButterfliesAndBluebells/pseuds/ButterfliesAndBluebells
Summary: Ciel Phantomhive was just a normal gamer, he liked playing fantasy rpg's as much as the next complete nerd, but he never really considered what it would be like to truly live in one. When his parents leave him alone for the week with a babysitter, he's quick to pay him off to get alone time. But alone time seems to come at a price, because when he goes to pick up groceries for himself at the local convenience store, he never comes back. He gets summoned to a fantasy world where he meets this stranger who had something very important to him stolen. When he tries to help him get his item back, he witnesses the stranger die horribly. But then he learns, he has the power to save him. With the power Return By Death, he can save this boy from an awful fate. But at a heavy cost. His own life





	1. Zero

Trekking through the cool, falling leaves that characterized the autumn breeze around him, a young boy stared down at his phone, tapping away at every ghost and ghoul that appeared in his mobile game. He didn't really have to look up at where he was going to know that he was walking to the local convenience store, Bimco. It wasn't really the best store he could find, but they sold basic groceries a guy like him would need for a weekend at home.

Looking up from the game he was previously playing, his dark blue eyes scanned the isles for the minute meals he'd need to make for himself while his parents were gone on business the whole week. Of course, they left him meals and provided him a babysitter, but the guy they hired left as soon as they noticed that he really didn't need him there. Plus, the gamer paid him an extra forty pounds to leave. The food quickly ran out when he realized that the smoke alarms really did work, and although his favorite clothes were black, he hated when his food matched.

Long story short, he'd burned up everything and needed to make do with what he could find. Common sense had evaded him for long enough, but when he saw the instant ramen and bottles of pre-packaged teas in front of him, he knew that even he couldn't mess it up. He was extremely helpless. The blue eyes that had previously been scanning the colorful arrays of sugary things that were wrapped in rainbows of thin plastic now landed on a packaged cake that looked particularly desirable to the sugar fiend that reached out for it. He consumed so much processed chemicals from cakes that his parents nearly banned him from them. But they weren't here to stop the disobedient child from buying the sugary treat, now were they?

A satisfied smirk planted itself on the young gamer's face as the slice of chocolate found its way to the top of the stack of foods the boy picked out for himself. Two containers of Cup Noodles, a few bottles of tea, a microwavable hamburger, and two bags of lays classic chips in their overbearingly bright yellow bags. Carrying all this stuff was quite tiring on his weak arms, but it would be damaging to his pride to admit to it. He closed his eyes for a moment to internally tell himself to deal with it when he saw a flash of bright lights and moving people from underneath his eyelids. He nearly jumped with shock, but somehow managed to restrain himself from doing so.

As soon as he sat his foods on the counter and paid for them, he closed his eyes and rubbed them free of the crazy hallucinations he saw before. 'It's just a dream, I guess' he told himself, maybe to convince himself that he wasn't going mad. That tactic didn't seem to work too well once he closed his eyes again and saw a carriage racing past that looked like it was from before cars were ever invented. The boy quickly grabbed his groceries and rushed out the door as he tried to deny anything that he'd just seen. He held both fists to both eyes and tried to rub away the hallucinations, but he couldn't. The next time he opened his eyes, he was in a bustling Victorian city, but it definitely wasn't London. He doubted it was even in England at all.

 

Large pillars of alabaster covered his sights, blocking almost everything but the sky and market place before him. He'd seen farmers markets before, but this was different. This looked like a fantasy game he'd played a hundred time over, but with a bazaar kind of feel to it. Knights walked past and women in peasant dresses carried around baskets with breads and fruits and eggs. Children played in the streets and carriages and carts rolled past peacefully. Everything looked calm, but Ciel was not. Ciel was extremely not calm. Not to say he was freaking out, but he was excited! He had wondered how he was supposed to get home, but he was more interested on how he ended up in a magical world. Maybe a warlock summoned him to be a great hero! Or maybe there was a princess who needed to be saved! All common sense that had previously been with him was lost when he began to run around the streets to see all there was to see. There was a building with a big clock in it, just like big ben, but this one was silver and was covered with what seemed like a royal emblem. Even the numbers looked different. He could make out what they were supposed to be from memory of what actual clocks were like, so he figured out all on his own that it was roughly 11 o'clock in the morning and was almost to be noon.

The sights and sounds differed in many ways. Around him, birds chirped softly and people spoke about many different things to each other. The air smelled of fresh bread and a bit of floral perfumes, but maybe that was just the stand next to him run by a plump lady that wore the clothes of an exotic gypsy, and cloths that spread across the makeshift walls of her tent gave a beautiful mixture of decadent stained glass lights filtered from the warm sunlight that gave a calming sort of feeling to the blaring cacophony of the streets surrounding it. The place felt like it could be a paradise, and it was only one corner of this new world that he's yet to explore.

From behind the gypsy, a young boy peaked out of the cloth wall that separated the back room from the open business. He nearly knocked over a few perfume bottles and bangles, but the gypsy was there to catch them just in time.

"Sorry Ms. Hannah," The child said in a thick British accent, smiling joyfully at the woman that was nearly double his height.

"It's quite alright dear," 'Ms. Hannah' replied. At least, that's what Ciel assumed she was called. That's what the little freckled boy called her.

Turning away from the child and the gypsy woman, Ciel went to go look at more things this strange and vast world had to offer. Meeting people could happen later on, he supposed. That family looked cute, but he should look for the princess who needs saving or the dragon that needs to be slayed. There's no adventure in a kid knocking over a bottle and his mum catching it. As he continued to walk down the street he found a great opportunity to try his heroics out on a thief who had managed to snatch a few loafs of bread from the vender that was seven stalls past the gypsy lady and two before the elderly man who sold peaches and sweet cups of tea.

The blue haired hero of the hour rushed forward and tried to grab the man by the arm, shouting a lot of gibberish that didn't translate into any real English, at least, not by sound. Everything he tried saying must have meant something, but the way he said it meant nothing. Sadly, when he tried to grip the thief's arm, he was left empty handed. The thief had no arm to speak of and there was hardly any strong fabric to grasp onto his shirt by. The quick red-head that looked to be almost a foot taller than Ciel had quickly vanished and left behind no trace other than the asthmatic do-gooder that seemed to have over exerted himself on a whim. Apparently getting summoned into a fantasy land did not automatically give you any powers. What he did get, however, was an asthma attack.

As soon as he realized he couldn't breathe, he pulled his inhaler out of his pocket and rushed to the nearest alleyway. He pulled the inhaler to his mouth and slowly started breathing again. His heart felt like it was about to jump out of his chest and out run him. Then kick his ass about fifteen times over. The point is, his heart was going crazy. Plus there was a mad Baker back in the street that looked like he was nearly ready to murder Ciel. Choosing to avoid the situation entirely, he walked down the narrow alley he'd managed to sneak off into and walked for about twenty minutes or so.

When he finally stopped, he'd made it into a darkened alley next to a cobbler's shoe store and what he wanted to say wasn't a brothel, though it clearly was one. All the workers, upon seeing the short blue haired boy that wore black skinny jeans, a navy blue T-shirt with the name of some edgy band, and a thick, pressed cotton jacket that had around twelve buckles on it, decided that he has best be avoided unless he approached them. It was no big loss as far as he was concerned. But it did kinda hurt this feelings to see that the prostitutes thought he was the less classy one. He supposed he was though, he was sitting in a dirty alley to eat a bag of chips for lunch.

Rolling his eyes, he opened the plastic bag that he'd previously forgotten he'd had, that held the food he now desperately desired. Today, he'd put in more effort than he ever has before and deeply failed. 'Whatever,' he thought to himself. 'At least I have some crisps to make up for it.' The not-so-suave teen opened the bag of one of his lays chips a bit too quickly and ended up spilling about six or seven of them on his lap.

"Dammit!"

The next noise he heard after his own frustrated yelling was quite possibly the most angelic laughter he'd heard. Though, it did harbor some manical undertones since he assumed the laughter itself was mockery of him. Actually, no assumptions needed, it was directly at him.

"Something funny?" He asked with a sarcastic tone as he turned around to see the source of the mocking that seemed almost fair with that pretty of a laugh.

"Yes, you. You've spilled. Though, it looks rather clean compared to how a child does it, you can probably still have them," said the blonde boy that Ciel saw behind himself.

His heart nearly stopped right then and there. The blonde looked like a ray of pure sunshine. With eyes so blue that they looked comparable to an arctic glacier and flawless, snow white skin to match, he looked like almost a wintery prince, but the promiscuous smile on his lips and his flaxen blonde hair, his appearance could warm almost anybody's heart. Ciel couldn't even tell for sure that the prince behind him was even a prince and not a princess. He had long eyelashes and plump lips, even rosy cheeks and the suit he was wearing seemed to have a bit of a skirt to it.

"Would you like some?" Ciel nearly stuttered, retaining only a little bit of his pride.

Seeing that the male in front of him was clearly not entirely there, the 'prince' gave a bit of a smirk and grabbed a chip directly from the boy's lap as he sat down next to him.

"Thank you for asking, I'd love some." He said without hesitation, drawing the chip to his feminine lips and taking a bite.

That seemed to have brought Ciel out of his stupor, but it also caused him to turn several shades of red and made him move his hands over his lap faster than lightning. "H-hey! I would have given you one, you didn't have to do that-!" He shouted.

But that only caused the 'prince' to laugh some more, which in turn made Ciel calm down a bit. He was still a bit pink, but now he was less flustered.

"Okay, next time I'll ask." He said happily, glad that Ciel had spoken something that sounded less start struck. "But keep in mind, you'll have to hold one out to me before I just go grabbing them. In this part of town, people will do much worse."

That made the blue haired boy rather fearful of the area all of a sudden. Who knows what lurks behind every corner, and how many times they'll invade his personal space.

But he couldn't let himself show any fear, so to fake it, he'd just have to act a little bit cocky.

"I doubt there's anybody worse than you." He teased, holding out another chip. The other gladly took the chip from him and took a small bite.

"Yeah, you." The blonde teases back, icy eyes shimmering as he winked at the other. "The way you mutilated that, you'd think you're fitting to slay a dragon."

"I could slay anything that crosses my path, you know. Not even god nor all his angels could surpass me." He fakely boasted, then dissolved into laughter.

The blonde just tilted his head and smiled dreamily. "You're a cheeky one, aren't you? Well, I've spent enough time here. I have to get going."

Ciel sighed lightly and got up, holding his hand out to the 'Prince' that had been sitting next to him. The aforementioned 'Prince' took his hand and stood up, crushing the few chips that had fallen without Ciel noticing when he'd gotten up. The white high heeled, thigh high boots that crushed them clicked against the cobblestone street that separates the houses and markets from one another as Ciel let go of his hand and he turned around to walk off. "Thanks for the food, whatever it was."

"They're called crisps," Ciel said, putting the chip bag with the rest of his food. "What are you called?"

The blonde took a deep breath and smiled a smile that could melt even dry ice. "Jim. Jim Macken. And you are?"

"Ciel Phantomhive. And not only am I lost, but I also have no idea what I'm doing." He said, walking up next to him and standing in place.

"Well, you might want to go somewhere else then. It's dangerous here." Jim said, starting to walk off. "I have something I need to find. Something that was stolen from me."

"I don't think it's that dangerou-" he got cut off as a person grabbed him from behind and held a blade to his neck. "Fuck!"

The person holding the knife whispered lowly in his ear, "hand me everything you've got or you're dead."

"What? Why?!" Ciel asked, struggling against his captor. "This is literally all I have!"

"Then you'll be handing over all you have." It was a woman. The person robbing him was a woman, probably from that brothel. This couldn't get much worse..

Jim walked over to the scene from where he'd been only a few seconds prior and crossed his arms. "Let him go, or I'll make you let him go."

"And just how are you gonna do that?" She asked, confidence strong in her voice. Clearly, she'd done this before. And succeeded.

"Like this." He held his hand up to her face and a golden light flashed for a second from his palm. The woman's red eyes fluttered shut and she fell backwards, dropping the knife. When Ciel turned to look at her, he saw that she had short, curly black hair framing her face and she wore a leather outfit that didn't leave much to the imagination. That, and she was missing a leg. Now he actually felt a bit of sympathy for her, but not enough to let her rob and kill him.

He broke out of his thoughts when he noticed Jim had taken him by the hand and started pulling him away from the scene with a determined look on his face.

"That only lasts for about ten seconds, you need to hurry up." He said, now beginning to run. Ciel didn't have to be told twice when to run from women. Especially armed women who look like they could ruin his parents marriage.

When they stopped running, they'd made it a total of five blocks. A big road of sixty carriages on each side pulsed as if it were the blood stream of a human being. It seemed so lively. There were pies and flowers and so many things to see. Yet when they stopped, they'd stopped at a jewelry stand. Before he could begin to wonder why Jim stopped here of all places, the prince like boy let go of him and started scanning over all of the jewelry. It all looked stunning, with hundreds of glittering jewels in the light, each gem only adding to the kaleidoscope of colors that surrounded each and every passing customer.

"What are we doing here?" Ciel questioned. "Shouldn't we be out searching for the thief?"

"Oh? You're still here? Well, I guess I should be looking for whoever stole it, but right now I'm looking to see if it turned up at all. You should be on your way now, you're pretty much safe."

Jim wasn't getting through to him at all, was he? Ciel was determined to help him find what be was looking for. Maybe that's why he was summoned? It did seem logical after all. Help a prince then go back home. That seemed to be the game.

"Since you saved me back there, I owe you. And as you can see, I clearly can't pay you with what I own, since I don't own anything. I'll help you find what you're looking for."

"It's not here," Jim mumbled. "I'll have to look elsewhere."

He turned to look Ciel in the eyes and sighed. "I can't stop you, I guess. Come on, we'll have to check other vendors if that's what it takes."

Ciel perked up instantly and smiled, holding one arm up in the air with determination. "I will find it for you, your Highness. Even if it's the last thing I do!"

Jim chuckled and gestured for him to follow as he walked down the street to look for the next stand that might sell whatever it was that was stolen from him. The curious boy that followed him still had no idea what it was that he had even lost, but he figured that maybe he would ask when there were less people around to over hear them. Clearly, if somebody stole it and Jim was looking for it this badly, then other people might want it too. 'Jim looks awfully important, he must have tons of things worth stealing, but after what he did to that girl, how could anybody dare to even compete with him?' He asked himself, head buzzing with theory after theory of what it might be.

"Her! Stop her!" Jim cried out, pointing at a guy in ragged clothing who was jumping from building to building and running across the laundry ropes that connected the ones that had them. The magical blonde tried to fire a blast of golden light at the thief but they were too fast. He sped after the quick criminal at full speed, gripping Ciel's arm and pulling him with. He tried to fire a few more, but it seemed as if that were intended to be a close quarters only move.

"That's a girl-?" Ciel asked, running with Jim for the little time that he could.

This was starting to get worrisome. The kid who stole Jim's thing must be going a hundred miles an hour or something that the rate he was counting. Even rabbits didn't run that fast, at least not that he'd seen. He knew he wouldn't last long running after her, but he couldn't get a word in, all his breaths were used on the panting he was doing in an effort to just merely even keep up. He was slowing Jim down, he knew it, he just couldn't get himself to stop. He wanted to help, more than anything. Maybe this time determination could beat out asthma!

It couldn't. He started to cough uncontrollably and choke and wheeze. Jim stopped running and crouched down next to him, trying to say something, but Ciel couldn't hear him. He could only hear the sounds that one might hear when they're underwater. His vision started to slowly blur. He couldn't even stand for much longer, he fell to his knees to prevent from ending up face down on the street, where he'd surely get tons of cuts and bruises. Ciel threw up some bile on the streets the moment he landed on his knees and Jim pulled him out to the side of the road before everything went black.

　

When he woke up, he could only see a very bright, icy blue. Ciel blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes clear, so he could actually see again when he got up. He tried to sit up, but when he did, a strong but delicate touch kept him in place. There was a hand keeping him down. He followed the source of the hand and trailed his eyes up a pale purple and white sleeve that lead to Jim's face, which was intently concentrated on Ciel. Jim was mumbling some sort of weird Latin incantation as his hand formed a soft cloud surrounding his chest. 'This must be magic,' he told himself. Ciel Phantomhive, who spent hours upon hours dissing Healers, was getting fixed using healing magic. What irony.

"Hey, Jim-"

"Be quiet, I'm almost done." He said politely, although it sounded a bit strained, like he really was upset, but he wasn't allowed to say so.

Ciel silenced himself for a moment to listen to the boy's Latin spells, working their ways into his system. 'Wait, that's not Latin, I can't even tell what it is..' It sounded a lot like a plea of some sorts, maybe a request from somebody else. Whatever it was, it was working. He hadn't felt this good in years, it was like he was breathing straight out of a tree. Wait, bad example, but the point is, it felt amazing. This was every asthmatic's dream come true.

Once the healing process was over, Jim pulled his hand back and ran his fingers through Ciel's soft hair. "Now you can talk, but don't be annoying about it, okay? I've gotten a headache from using all that magic on your lungs.." He looked like he wanted to be angry over it, but somehow couldn't be.

Ciel smiled and glanced up at him, his cheeks glowing with embarrassment. "Your lap is incredibly comfortable, I might not want to get up and talk anymore."

Jim stood up promptly and laughed as Ciel fell a few inches to the ground, not hurt enough to cause damage to anything but his pride. Ciel stood up and pouted as his cheek had sustained a scratch smaller than a pinky finger. "Okay, I'll talk. There are a few questions that I do have though. What was that language you were just speaking?"

"Aramaic." Jim stated, dusting off his white and purple shorts and the extra long coat that surrounded them like a skirt. "But don't ask why, I won't give the answer to just any stranger."

"I thought I'd surpassed the title of stranger by now." Ciel mused, leaning against the wall of the building behind him. The area they were at was actually another alleyway, but this one had a nice doorway to it and a roof made of the same stone the houses it separated were. It was more of a tunnel through the city, but it only lasted ten feet before it ended and turned to stairs that had a metal gate with loops of iron and steel that had faint traced of blood on them keeping them locked shut. There was a small cloth that hung at the door on entrance to the small shut off space.

"I can make a special exception for you, but only for you." Jim said, his rosy cheeks dusting a shade darker. Ciel thought he was imagining it. He might be. "Any other questions?"

"Oh. Um, what did that girl steal from you? and was she really a girl?"

"Yes, she is. Her name is Freckles and she's a known thief around here. Normally, I'd let her go, but this thing she's stolen from me is very important. I can't lose it. I'd do anything to get it back." He said, his voice slowly getting more and more angry by the second. "She took my family ring. It's golden and has a red gem on it, and the red gem is surrounded by small diamonds. I can replace diamonds, but I can't replace that particular ring." After he had finished explaining, he had calmed down.

"Wow, I thought somebody had stolen your wallet or something, this is really bad.."

"What's a wallet?" Jim asked curiously.

"Well," Ciel answered, amused that the boy had no idea what something simple was. "It is a magic cloth that is like a woman's purse that is small enough to be stored in your pocket. It holds all of your money in it and it keeps it safe from getting lost."

"That sounds brilliant, I usually keep mine in a small bag. But Freckles stole that too.. So I can't even buy myself lunch.." He pouted, already kind of hungry. Ciel could tell that was true when he heard the boy's stomach growl.

"You can have some of my food. All you need is water and a place to heat it. I already have the forks in my bag." He offered, holding up the slightly ripped plastic bag of ramen, tea, cake, and chips. "I always take some from the store just in case there's no clean dishes at home and I'm glad I did. Now seems like the time to use them."

"I suppose I'll eat some of your food." He said, sticking his nose up as if he weren't eager at he opportunity to have food. That healing magic really did number on him.

"And I suppose I could take the offer back.." He teased, trying to get a reaction out of the blonde.

"Fine! I'd love it, thank you." Jim said, tilting his head and hugging his arm, a prominent pout still very much on his face. "To help, I know the perfect place to get clean water and a place to sit that isn't the ground."

"Sounds like a deal, Ciel said. "I'm in."

As soon as they arrived to the location that Jim was talking about, the sun was just starting to set. The sky turned into a sea of red and orange and purple and yellow, washing away any negative feelings that might have stirred while they spoke. Jim and Ciel spoke of many things, most of them about favorite foods and animals and things to do when there was nothing to do. They sat down at the benches surrounding a public fountain that was enchanted to purify any water inside of it. Apparently, Jim explained, it was a gift from a neighboring kingdom that was given to this one to help the people stop suffering from water poisonings that were caused by a cult that just wanted to reign down terror on all who crossed their paths.

"Do they still exist? The cult, I mean?" Ciel spoke, afraid of what might happen to him here before he could get home.

"Yes," Jim answered. "But they've been in hiding for the past five hundred years. You don't have to worry about them." He materialized a chalice from thin air and filled it with the water from the fountain, then used a small bit of fire from the tips of his fingers to heat it until it began to boil.

"Give me the food, I'll add the water." Jim said, sitting back down next to Ciel on the bench. Ciel pulled the lid half way off of the cup noodle containers and passed it to Jim. The containers were quickly filled with the water and the chalice disappeared, almost as if it had never existed to begin with. Jim placed the cups aside and Ciel pulled out the bottles of tea for each of them. He passed one to the person next to him and they both sat in silence for a few seconds before Jim scooted a little closer the other boy and lightly placed his hand over his.

"Thank you, really." He mumbled, looking to Ciel with bright pink cheeks. "Once people find out who I really am, they usually start to hate me. But you've been nothing but kind. I don't know how to thank you."

"You don't have to thank me for something like that." He said, bewildered that somebody so great could even think he'd hate them. "You deserve to be treated like a human."

"That's not really true. But I suppose I could thank you like this." Jim spoke, leaning forward and giving Ciel a kiss on the cheek. "You're too kind for this world."

Ciel genuinely couldn't say anything after that. He thought that he'd come here to fight a dragon or save a princess from a tower, but he'd just been kissed by an apparently gay prince that thinks that he's kind. Ciel's always been a spoiled brat, but today he tried to be a hero. He wasn't made to be a hero, nor has he ever been one before in his life, but he was starting to like being this prince's hero.

"And you're sweeter than a piece of cake," Ciel said in return, leaning in to return the gesture.

"I think these are done. On the way here, you said they'd only take three minutes." Jim stated, pulling back from what should have been Ciel's first romantic and kinda gay kiss. Ciel, of course, moved back quickly and awkwardly took his cup from Jim, handing him a fork to use as well as opening his own. The next half hour they sun set together as they ate ramen noodles and drank bottled sweet tea.

After they finished, they continued their search for the family ring that Jim had gotten stolen from him. They started to ask around for where Freckles might be so they could ideally take it back without getting the guards involved. For some reason, Jim didn't want to talk to them or inform them of what was going on. It seemed kinda weird, he may have been powerful on his own, but the guards were probably ten times that in power and sheer number. If so, they could be there to make sure that no one got hurt or anything. But ultimately it was Jim's decision. It was his ring and so it was his choice. Together, they tracked Freckles to a bar that's logo had a big ship on it that had a few animals sticking out of it. 'Noah's ark,' he thought, looking at the picture. 'Why would they use that?'

When Jim checked, the door was unlocked, but it sounded like no one was even there. He pushed open the door and walked in. Inside, there was blood everywhere, and furniture knocked over like they were pieces of paper and somebody opened a window. There was a corpse inside too, one so big that it looked like the incredible hulk had come to life and got killed by something bigger and much stronger. Before Ciel could possibly stop him, Jim stepped forward, leaving Ciel back to watch. He didn't have powers, it wasn't safe for him, after all.

"Freckles, are you here? You have to return m-" and before he could even finish his word, Jim's throat had been sliced open by something Ciel couldn't even see. Everything next sort of happened in slow motion. Jim fell forward so slowly that Ciel thought he could catch him, but his legs wouldn't move and all he could do was scream and watch. First he fell on his knees, then his stomach, then finally his blonde hair crashed down onto the floor with a thump. His eyes were blank and the blood hadn't even shown up yet, but Ciel knew he was dead. He ran forward to hold him and tell him that everything would be okay, that Ciel would save him. But then he legs weren't to his body anymore. He fell forward and hit the ground, but that didn't stop him from crawling forward with his hands, clawing and scratching at the floor with his fingernails, splinters and nails catching under him and making him bloody as he pulled himself closer and closer to Jim. 'I'm going to save him..' The next thing gone was his right arm, but he used his left to get as far as he could, no matter who tried to stop him. He would never let anybody stop him from being Jim's hero. the blood loss was starting to get to him, because his eyes started fading out and his one remaining limb fell limp just as it was reach Jim.

"I'm going to save you! No matter what! I will save you!"

Ciel was dying and it hurt him so much to do so.. Everything was hurting.. He was fading and he still hadn't reached Jim.

**"I'll save you!"**

And then he was dead.

_He opened his eyes and was right back at the street he started, with the gypsy woman to his back and the ginger little child almost knocking over her merchandise._

 


	2. One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ciel starts right from where he began after watching Jim get murdered in front of his very eyes and then having gotten killed himself. He meets Jim somewhere else this time, and finds that the loving boy he'd fallen for doesn't remember a thing about him.

Bright sunlight pierced his eyes as he blinked out the dark visions that were clouding his mind. Where was he exactly? He couldn't tell. Ciel had only just realized he was even alive and that was too much to barely comprehend. The gypsy woman he'd definitely seen somewhere before looked down to him and got a confused expression. 

"Are you alright, dear? You look scared." 

He didn't notice that his expression had turned into that of a deer caught in the headlights of a very big truck. Of course he was terrified, but he didn't think he'd show it. He couldn't stop thinking about Jim's determinated stance being cut down by an unknown assailant. He couldn't stop thinking about the searing pain that came from getting his body ripped apart like a Mr. Potatohead doll that he'd play with as a child.

"I'm fine." He replied. "What are you selling?" 

It was pretty obvious that she was selling fine perfumes, large sets of fabric, scarves, and a few pieces of fine jewelry. But, he was nervous and ready to change the subject at any cost.

"I'm selling saris and accessories. There's a big wedding coming up soon, you know. The prince Soma is choosing a partner to share his kingdom with and he's gotten rather close with somebody from Alvar." She smiled rather proudly. "It's glad to see the kingdom I was born in and the one I was raised in getting along."

"Oh. I'm not well versed with the names of other kingdoms yet. Can you tell me what the name of your homeland is?"

"Asanui." She said, her eyes sparkling. 

"You seem to like that place just fine. Why did you leave?" Ciel spoke, curious at why somebody who seemed to adore the place would be anywhere but there.

"My family, the Anafeloz, moved here and changed our name to Annafellows, to fit in better, since our heritage was becoming a problem. People kept calling us slurs like Asani trash or gypsies." Her tone had since changed, turning to one of anger and frustration. "They don't understand that we left because the tyrant had little to no care for our starving people. The king just died and his son Soma must be married before he can take the throne. 

"He's always been kind to our people. He's even taken in some citizens and given them better lives, like Agni, his advisor and body guard. Once he becomes king, I'm taking my children and returning home. Isn't that right, Luka?" The woman, who Ciel no longer wanted to refer to as a gypsy, and instead as her name, turned to the curtain behind her as a small, red headed boy peaked his head out of the makeshift door. 

"Yes, but we gotta find brotha' first. He's still at work!" He replied, giggling and tackling the lavender haired woman as he gave her legs a big hug. 

"Don't worry, I haven't stolen them. Although I don't look like my children, they are mine." She spoke, her eyes radiating a ton of mama bear energy. "I have the adoption paperwork, so don't even bother. I've been through it a million and ten times, it will be useless to waste time trying to take him from me."

"I wasn't going to try. He looks like yours, honestly. You have the same smile." Ciel shrugged, not used to seeing a family so protective of each other. "There's nothing wrong with being adopted. My mother and father adopted me and I feel just fine about it." 

Hannah, as Ciel finally remembered, pulled out a small blue scarf, one that looked like it had been snipped from a larger one, and held it out to Ciel. "Here, my son Alois ripped this the other day on accident and it won't be worth much if I tried to sell it, so you can have it for free. Think of it as a free sample of my product." 

Ciel took the scarf and wrapped it around his neck once, giving Hannah a polite smile. "Thank you, Mrs. Anafeloz."

"Please, call me Hannah." 

"Call me Ciel."

And just like that, Ciel had made an actual friend here. Actually, Jim was his friend too, but he wanted to be more than just friends with him. That reminded him, he needs to find Jim-

"I have to get going. I'm looking for somebody very important. When the wedding day comes, remind me to come back. I'll gladly wear anything you have to offer."

And with that, Ciel was gone, weaving his way through the crowd, darting between people, trying to remember the way to the brothel that he'd originally found Jim at. Or rather, where Jim had found him. 

When he tried to think of the past, he couldn't help but to remember Jim crashing into the ground when he was slaughtered by the person he just couldn't have seen. Images of blood and dead bodies flooded his mind with sheer terror lying peacefully in his spine as he walked through the crowd. Breaking down in screams and tearing at the skin on his face and the blue hair at his head was not public decency. In fact, it seemed like something you shouldn't ever do in public.

He suddenly remembered the path he was supposed to take when a flash of red hair ran by with a stolen item clutched to the chest of the person it belonged to. 

'Here's to do overs.' Ciel smirked as he ran after the man, this time trying to start with a fast run to catch up to him while his energy was still high. 

That's probably the worst idea he's had yet.

Instead of even coming close to the thief, Ciel ended up crashing against a cart full of unknown things that he suspected were glass, because of the shattering inside that occurred the moment he bumped the person inside through the tarp. 

'Fuck-' 

And that's when Ciel started running the path that he instinctively took last time. When he'd finally stopped, he was at a place called "Betty's". It was just the brothel he was looking for.

'Wait, damn, that sounded awful-', Ciel thought, as he pushed open the door. The building inside was rather run down, but only slightly classier than you'd expect a fantasy world brothel to be. It looked like a western pub, but it had silky red tapestries blocking off rooms that he assumed weren't worth enough to install doors. Sounds of ecstasy echoing through all the halls, nearly disgusting him with how many people were there at that time of day. 

The woman he'd recognized as the person who'd mugged him earlier was walking out of the third red curtain to the left of him, looking angry as can be. 

"Madame, this bloak o'er 'ere won't pay up, do somefin' 'bout him!" The woman yelled, her body covered in a silky white blanket she'd held with one hand, the other hand pulling a half naked pudgy man with, and Ciel thanked his lucky stars for it, his pants on.

A woman with large breasts, crimson red hair, and bloody red eyes to match sat at the front desk in the room, which he hadn't really noticed until now. She stood tall and walked over, smiling as a red fan opened in front of her face, lightly fanning her. 

"Mally, dear, did you forget our pay first policy? The client must put the money in the deposit box before you give your services." She said, clearly pissed off. "There's nothing I can do dear, but.. Tell Grell." 

'Mally' said, "But Grell's not gonna be 'ere for the next monft'!" 

"Then that's your fault. Don't come crying to me about it, girl." The Madame turned away, but not before glaring daggers at Mally. "And you will collect income for today. If it's a waste, your time here will be shortened." 

She walked away as Mally let go of the man and trudged back to the third curtain to the left, presumably to get her clothes. 'Then.. She'd go mug somebody outside to get her wages...' Ciel thought, walking to the Madame after the scene had finally calmed down. 

"You're a plucky new face. Here to lose your virginity? We have tons of lovely girls here to help with that." She said, gesturing to the red silk curtains. 

That immediately caused Ciel to become ten times more red than this woman could ever be.

"I-I'm looking for somebody specific! H-have you seem him-?" He managed to get out, still beat red. 

"Well, there's only one male available for services here, and he should be out in a second or two. He's just with his weekly usual right now, then he has the rest of the day off. I suppose you could book him though, if he thinks you're worth the time." 

Ciel shook his head, not interested. He only liked Jim. 

"No, I'm looking for Jim. He has blond hair, light blue eyes and he's really, really pretty. And sweet. And he's got a nice laug-" He stopped, blushing. He'd gotten carried away. Also, the Madame was laughing at him.

"Jim is one of my dolls, Darling. He's the one I was mentioning. Here, since you look so stricken, you can have his next session. He can deal with a five minute delay." 

That was Jim's cue to walk down the staircase at the end of the room as he licked his lips clean of whoever he'd been with prior to leaving the room. "Madame Red, I'm leaving now. I made double today, like you'd asked." 

Ciel was surprised, though, he didn't show it. Faries and vampires and huge ass furries existed in this world, yet the most shocking is that Jim was a male prostitute. And a good one, at that.

"Actually, sweetheart if you don't mind, this client needs you for a good five minutes." Madame Red spoke, pointing to Ciel. 

"I-I never-" 

But before Ciel could finish his sentence, Jim was already interrupting him. "What?! No! I already completed all my clients for the day!" He looked angry..

"Well, you can complete one more. Just do him, then you can go." Madame Red said, glaring at Jim.

"Ugh, fine. Come on." He said, grabbing Ciel by the wrist and dragging him to the nearest red silk door. 

Once they were both in and the curtain was drawn shut, Jim pinned Ciel to the wall and placed his lips on his neck. He whispered, "How much are you paying?" against his neck as he started kissing. 

"As much as I'd like this to continue, stop- I just wanna talk." Ciel said, pushing him back. 

"Alright, but you have three minutes. And I will get compensation." 

"I don't have coins, but I will give you something worth while." Ciel said, handing him the slice of cake from his plastic bag. "It's chocolate, so I'm certain you'll enjoy it." 

"I'll accept it for now, but if you ever want to sleep with me, I expect real money." He huffed, taking the cake and sitting down on the bed as he placed the cake next to him. "Now talk."

"Are you okay?"

"That's a strange question to ask somebody in my line of work when you could be having at it."

"No," Ciel said, getting kind of nervous. "Are you hurt? Are you in any kind of pain?" 

"No, I'm not, why are you asking? You don't even know my name."

"Yes, I do Jim."

"No, you don't. And I don't even know yours. You're acting like a complete stalker." He said, crossing his arms as his eyes darkened and his pupils dilated. He was really holding back from losing his temper. "Stop wasting my time if you have nothing truly important to say." 

"I know where your ring is. Isn't that why you want to leave so much?"

"How did you know about that?" Jim asked defensively. "Nobody here knows about that."

"I'm magic."

"Nobody magic can do that. Trust me, I'm magic and even I can't do that."

"I had a dream where I met you and we looked for your ring together. But, something bad happened when we found it. That's why I wanted to make sure you're okay.. If everything's fine, I can save you a whole day of searching."

Though Jim was no fool, he really didn't want to search all day if this kid was offering to help him find it faster. All he needed was proof though.. 

"I know who took my ring. But not where they took it. Tell me who did it, and I'll trust you."

"It was a brunette girl that looks like a boy. Her name's Freckles." 

Jim paused, not yet ready to admit that he was going to give this stranger a chance. "I guess I have time now. Since you already paid, I'll sleep with you because I'm no longer pressed for time."

Jim stood up and pressed Ciel back against the wall, replacing his lips back in their original place and kissing slowly. 

"No, not like this. I don't want to have your body until I have your heart first."

"You don't want me-? Everybody wants to sleep with me-" Jim mumbled, actually insulted at what he'd heard. 

"Trust me, if it weren't like this, I'd have you right now, but I want you to fall in love with me first." 'I've already fallen for you,' he wanted to say, but didn't.

"You're not going to get far with that. I'm not looking to love somebody at the moment.." There was something he wasn't saying, Ciel could just tell. But he'd already gotten Jim angry enough at him.. Now wasn't the time to make it worse.

"Jim, look at me."

"Don't call me that."

"Darling, then." He said, removing the blond from the position he'd put himself in earlier and pulling him into a big hug. "I'll call you whatever you want, your Highness."

"Then call me that." 

"Yes, your Highness." 

Jim smiled and sighed, moving away from him and collecting the piece of cake he'd been given. "We're not going to fall in love, but I suppose I can tolerate the affection."

"You'll love it."

"I will tolerate it slightly less now."

"Come on, let's go. We have somewhere to be and I forgot the directions." 

Ciel took Jim's hand and pulled him out of the brothel, leading him down to the street they'd trekked before, but only one of them remembered. 

\---

Ciel had told Jim his name, and Jim decided it was less than adequate. Unlike the last time.

"You're a literal Seal, did you know that? You have those big eyes and everything, and you blubber on about nonsense." Jim spoke, laughing at him nearly the whole time. 

"What did I do to deserve this?" Ciel asked nobody in particular, though Jim didn't realize the meaning of rhetorical question.

"You gave me the creeps and pissed me off." He said in response. "You also thought Jim was my real name, which is kind of insulting since we met at a brothel and nobody ever uses their real names." 

"I didn't even kiss you, nor make any advances!" Ciel defended.

"Yet. You seem to think it's easy to romance somebody whose job is to be kissed and have sex all day."

"Your Highness, I politely resent the accusation. I like who you are, not just your body."

Jim rolled his eyes, sighing and biting his lip. "You don't even know a thing about me." 

"That's why I want to date you. So I can know you better."

"Whatever date is, you're not doing it to me. since it's you, it might be really weird. I haven't even heard of it yet."

"It's not sexual. I'm asking you to spend time with me as more than friends."

"No," Jim responded, looking rather upset. "I can't. Not with you."

"One day, I'll change your mind." 

"You don't have to. The answer can't be yes."

When Ciel was about to respond, the child he'd met earlier, Luka, ran up to Jim and jumped into his arms, almost knocking the cake out of his grip. But it stayed for some reason.

"Brotha', Brotha', Miss Hannah said we can have fish and chips for dinna'! That's your favorite, isn't it?" 

"Brother..?" Ciel wondered aloud as Jim nodded and picked Luka up, cuddling him lightly. 

'Luka said his brother's name is Alois..' The blue haired boy thought to himself. 'That means Jim is Alois. He really was using a pseudonym..'

"Tell Hannah I'll be back by dinner time. I got off of work early to surprise you both and I don't want her to know just yet." Alois said, placing Luka back down after giving him a kiss on the cheek. Luka smiled and ran off, most likely back to his mother. 

"So.. You're Alois?" The shorter boy asked. "I met Luka and Hannah before. They gave me this." He gestured at the scarf he'd had around his neck, the one actually hiding the slight red marks Alois had left earlier. 

"So, you've figured it out, huh? Now that you know both my identities, I'm going to ask you to refrain from telling my family. Hannah thinks the money I make for Luka's schooling comes from a different job. If she found out, I'd never hear the end of it.." He mumbled, walking along as if nothing had happened. 

"Your secret is safe with me, Alois." Ciel, who really wanted Alois to trust him, said. 

"Can you swear to God?" Alois asked, eyes nearly doing the pleading for him. 

"Yes, your Highness."

"That's much better." He said, placing the cake down on the oh so familiar shop table he'd been to before. Hannah's sari shop. He wrote a little note on top saying that Hannah should put it away and that Luka shouldn't eat it, and left it on top of the cake. 

After that, he grabbed Ciel's hand and ran off with him to the location Ciel told him his ring would be. Only then did Ciel notice the purple sheath hanging by Alois' side, with a golden handle and hilt shaped like angel wings.

\---

When they'd reached the location, the Noah's ark bar, Alois walked inside as if he'd been there a million times before. Or maybe he was just confident. Ciel himself was never actually confident in himself.. He had asthma and played chess and spent all day playing video games as a demon character. Alois was like this wonderful ice prince to combat whatever dangerous forces run amongst the world. 

He'd gotten distracted with inner monologue clearly, because Alois was already inside in the bar and he was just staring at a door. Though, he quickly corrected that mistake when he ran after Alois and accidentally ran into his stopped back. 

He could see Alois staring at Freckles with pure hatred in his eyes, resenting the idea of her mere existence. She'd stolen something important from him and she would pay.

"Give it back." He said, words like ice piercing through the warmth of the room. Everybody was quiet now. In the far corner of the room was Mally, with the red headed thief he'd seen earlier. Behind the bar was the large man he'd seen dead before everything went to hell in his 'dream', and sitting in front of him on the bar stool and drinking either wine or grape juice, with a glittering red and gold ring in her hand, was Freckles. 

"Finders keepers, don't ya' know?"

"You didn't find it, you stole it from me while I was working! Beast fucking tipped you off, huh?!" He accused, gesturing towards Mally who didn't look too offended. 

"So what if she did, aye? I'm selling it. Unless, you wanna buy it off a' me." 

"You're getting nothing, you damn thief. I know you have to steal sometimes, but not that. Steal from somebody who won't miss it." Alois shouted, drawing his sword. 

"What's got ya so attached to this ring anyways? It's not even that pretty." Freckles said, pocketing the jewlery. "I was just gonna take the diamonds out and such, sell it for much more that way."

"Give it back. Or I'll take it." He said slowly, walking closer as his baby blue eyes turned pure golden and lit up like a flame. 

"Jeez, you don't have to get all scary, just pay me for it and everything'll go back to normal." She said, though she looked pretty terrified.

"Now!" He yelled, raising his sword as a halo of golden light appeared above his head and wings materialized at his back, not seeming to rip his clothes at all. 

"Bloody 'ell!" Freckles cried, running behind the giant man behind the counter. "Jumbo, make 'im leave!" 

Jumbo moved to do something, but was caught short when Alois threw a golden bolt of light at him, paralyzing him for just enough time for Freckles to attempt to run. She didn't get very far before Alois hit her with the same bolt too. 

Alois ran to the frozen girl and pulled his ring from her pocket as a new face walked in. The new stranger was handsome, as most girls would probably say. He was pale white, had a snappy suit on, and had blood red eyes hidden behind black hair that just fell in his face with a certain sort of carelessness. 

"Alois Trancy, what have I told you about picking on others?" He teased, walking over to the angelic boy and grabbing his face. "Claude will be upset with you, you know. He's already rethinking his decision after finding out you're a whore."

"I-I'm not a whor-" he tried to say, but was stopped.

"That's the name of the profession. Either admit you're a godless whore of an angel, or admit you're a nothing but a half breed." The man said, laughing. 

"Fuck off, Sebastian." Alois mumbled, pulling away from him. "You're not to tell Claude of this. Besides, I'm just getting my ring back. He'd be more upset if I lost it."

Ciel backed up, watching the scene play out near the door as he saw that Sebastian's arm was turning into something that looked much more sharp than he wanted to admit. He didn't really think much of God in his world, but here, Alois was an angel and Sebastian was.. A demon. So there had to be a God..

He closed his dark blue eyes and began to pray for Alois to be okay and for him to come out of this alive.

For some reason, Alois started laughing as the two frozen people regained the ability to move, and Sebastian pressed Alois against the wall by his hips and shoulders.

"Ciel, I'm not going to die. Sebastian here isn't allowed to kill me. I'm betrothed to his brother." Alois said through his laughter and pushed him away. His angelic form melted off around him, but Sebastian's demonic form just continued to grow. 

"The engagement isn't officially started until you meet him, you aren't so important just yet."

"I have my family ring, I'm the head of the household, and my mother offered her first born child to the king, we're getting married whether either of us like it or not, just because you're upset that your brother's older than you, that doesn't mean you can insult me over it."

"Claude won't have you. He doesn't need a half breed angel like you sitting on throne of this country just because you're a Trancy!" He yelled, pushing Alois down to the floor and choking him with his claws. Golden liquid poured out against pale skin as several wounds were opened on Alois' neck. 

"Stop! You'll kill him!" Ciel screamed, running over to Sebastian and trying to pull his iron grip off of Alois's throat. 

"That's the plan." He said, as his ripped Alois' throat out of his neck and laughed.

Alois died again.. Alois died and it was all Ciel's fault. He told him where to go, he told him the information that got him killed.. 

Freckles was screaming. And then, she wasn't. Then her head fell to the floor in front of Ciel and he could see that she didn't have a left eye, but she did have tons of tiny freckles all over her nose. Or was that blood? Both maybe. 

He got down on his knees next to Alois and pulled him to his chest. 

"I'm so sorry, Alois.. I thought I could protect you.. I-I thought that if we got here sooner, he wouldn't show up and kill you.. I'm so sorry.." He sobbed, running his thumb softly over Alois' cheek that was slowly going cold. 

The rest of the room around him was going wild with panic. Sebastian was slaughtering everybody who'd witnessed him murder his brother's betrothed. Jumbo, then Beast, then the red haired man who liked robbing people.. They all died in a haze of red and gold, humans bleeding out, the angel spilling ichor on the floor as his body was held by the unlucky hero who was soon to understand his power for the first time. 

Ciel looked up from Alois' corpse and saw Sebastian looking down at him with an utterly grim version of a smile. "I'm sorry, young boy. But it's time to put that down. It might give you diseases if you touch it too much."

"Alois wasn't a whore... He was so much more than that.." He said, closing Alois' eyes and sitting him down oh so gently. 

He stood up and forced his eyes closed as tears spilled out. "This is the part where I die next, isn't it?"

"It is." 

A burning sensation around his neck told Ciel that he was being choked by a demons sharp claws. The breaking of bones and the tearing of skin told him logically that he was getting decapitated. But the pain didn't let him know any of that. The pain was the only thing he felt as his head was savagely ripped from his body and thrown in a place he could never know.

Ciel was dead for the second time.

And then, he was back at Hannah's sari shop, fully alive and unhurt again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for waiting so long to update. But, the update is here, and as promised is the bonus content. 
> 
> If you go to this location [ https://i.postimg.cc/NfHvMrV3/IMG-20190101-103221.jpg ] there's an image of Alois' character design for the story.


	3. Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starting again from Zero, Ciel rushes to save Alois before it's too late. Using his knowledge of what's going to happen, he tries to convince him to take his advice but things quickly go south. Alois is driven away before they can talk and Ciel has to find out for himself how to stop everybody from dying once and for all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the notes before you proceed with reading this chapter.
> 
> In this chapter there will be explicit sexual content. There will be a flashback to child rape and there will be a sexual instance where a 17 year old solicits from an 18 year old prostitute. This is a trigger warning for the chapter to rape survivors. 
> 
> All explicit material has attempted to be censored so only the bare minimum to understand what's happening is given.
> 
> I in no way endorse pedophilia, nor support it. All mentions of such or explicit situations written are made with the intention of horror. This story is based on two separate Horror stories and is intended to be such.
> 
> If you do not want to read the flashback of rape, the scene has been italicized and marked beginning to end with + signs. This is so any individuals who do not want to read it may skip over easily.
> 
> Mentions of the word will happen afterwards and are not marked for warnings.

Back where he started, Ciel realized two things. One, he had to save Alois from the biggest creep on planet's vendetta and murder schemes. Two, as he watched Luka nearly knock over the display at Hannah's stand, that he had been there before. Not once, but twice. He also died. Twice. He'd had his body ripped apart and torn limb from limb. 

 

Yet, he was calm. He knew it happened, he always did. But it finally sunk in. He should be dead right now. But he wasn't, he was still standing here at Miss Anafeloz's stand. 

 

Birds sang songs of happiness and calm, the crowds roared with excitement of another new day, and the people, so many people, raced by both gradually and exuberantly, completely unaware that the boy with blue eyes and hair to match was supposed to be dead. All the ants on the ground and the birds in the sky were unaffected, unknowing.

 

'Ignorance is bliss.' Ciel thought. 'But this is way better, now I know how to save Alois and avoid death. Just get to Freckles before him or that demon and somehow get the ring.'

 

He would meet Alois first, though. He has to, or when he returns the ring to him, it will look like Ciel stole it instead. You have to gain the quest before you can complete it afterall.

 

Ciel quickly ran in the direction of the brothel, ignoring the red headed man,  the Anafeloz family, and anybody else who happened to be standing by. He quickly swung his body around the corners and raced through the crowds, until at last, he found the brothel. It was disgusting, sinful, and rather tacky. But it was probably the best place in the whole world to Ciel, because that's where Alois was, being alive. Of course, he was early. Alois was.. With a client. Ciel had no right to be jealous, especially since it was Alois' job, and the boy was getting married to a demon.. But he was. Ciel was extremely jealous that somebody else was with him. Somebody who didn't even love him.

 

Swallowing back those selfish ideas, Ciel walked into the building, checking his phone for the time. It was only 10:30 am apparently. But he couldn't be sure if it was true. Do phones reset the time with interdimensional travel? Apparently so. He left at 11 pm, or around that time. He was only 17, but the people in his neighborhood saw him as an adult already, so it wasn't uncommon for him to buy snacks at the convince store at late hours. Two weeks from 18, he was. Not that it mattered anymore though, he was practically an infant in his world. And it showed. 

 

Again, Madame Red had her sights on him. Fresh meat, he assumed. 'Wait, no, that sounded dirty, dammit-!' He sighed internally and stepped forward, but got cut off by two people already walking past. It was Beast and that creep. She was going in there to service him, most likely. But he wasn't gonna pay-

 

Ciel let out a deep cough, then stepped between them. "Excuse me, but I'm sort of new here and I have a question. Would you spare a second to answer it for me?" He asked, putting on big puppy dog eyes. 

 

Beast looked sort of annoyed, but stopped anyways, actually giving him some sort of pity. She wasn't heartless, then. Maybe saving her from this creep was a good idea afterall. "What's the question, eh?" She asked, her voice less brash than it was when she was upset. It was sort of pretty. 

 

"About payment for these things.. Should I pay first or after? I wouldn't want to do something wrong on my first time here." Ciel mumbled, pulling at the edges of his sleeve. A good tactic to look nervous. She'd really think he's shy. Which he is, but lately, he's been more bold than usual. 

 

"Pay first, of course. Here's a good example. This bloak needs to pay me for services, so I'll just collect before we get there." She said, turning to the man who was about to go with her. 

 

The man looked nervous though. He swallowed hard and grabbed at his collar for a moment, then said, "actually, I'm broke."

 

Beast's eyes lit up with anger as she stepped back and grabbed something that had been mounted to the wall, that Ciel always thought was a kinky display. A whip. It wasn't display then, that's how they dealt with incompetent customers. 

 

"Get out," Beast said, cracking the whip. "I won't be givin' out services to  people who think they can just taken 'em." 

 

The male quickly ran out the front door, shoving Ciel aside as he did so. Score one for Phantomhive. Next, he needed to convince Madame Red to let him have a session with Alois. Or, Jim for that matter. Jim is his name here. 

 

He tried to step forward to go to see her, but Beast stopped him. She placed a hand on his shoulder as she put the whip back and said, "wait."

 

So he did. The blue haired boy stopped and turned to look at her. "What is it?"

 

"I wanna compensate ya' for savin' me. I almost let that guy screw me over, literally. Madame Red would've punished me for it, so here. Take this. It's the cost of one service here." She spoke as she handed him a few coins. "But don't tell anybody. I wouldn't want boys out there thinkin' I'm so desperate I'd pay for it." 

 

With that, she left. She went back outside to look for more potential clients, he assumed. Now, he could actually go talk to Madame Red. 

 

He finally walked over to her and put the coins in his left pocket. The red woman just smirked and rested her cheek against her hand. She could tell from the scene before that he was here to be serviced. She overheard everything. 

 

"What kind of girl would you like today, darling? We have red heads, blondes, and everything else you could possibly want."

 

"Actually, I'd like a boy."

 

"Oh? Didn't peg you for the type. We only have one male currently, and he's busy right now, so if you'd like to wait for him, sit down over there." She spoke, gesturing to a red velvet couch, with a dark mahogany table that looked a bit like generic wood stained the wrong color. 

 

He nodded happily and sat down at the suspiciously stained couch. The table in front of it had a bouquet of faux flowers, red roses, all fake and pristinely ordered. Next to that, was a bowl of what looked like condoms. They had those in fantasy worlds? They weren't modern day ones, if that was any consolation. They were packaged in thin paper and looked like they were probably made of thin hide. They didn't have to be that good, they just had to prevent stds. 

 

Or pregnancy, for the girls who had to worry about it.

 

The lack of technology wasn't exactly through, seeing as there were clocks and some oil lamps, so that shouldn't have been a surprise. It seemed to be around the 1800's here, but women didn't seem as oppressed. In fact, they seemed more respected. But, there was some racism. Not much, but some. Why did people care anyways? Skin color and nationality shouldn't matter. Especially when there were literal angels and demons and faeries. One would think species mattered more than race.

 

Not that he should complain. Hannah seemed content with her family, he was certain that bias against her didn't matter when she had her children to go home to. Luka and Alois.. Alois. That's right, he was still waiting for Alois to come downstairs.

 

Almost on que, the angel hurried down the stairs next to the front desk and said word for word what he said last time.

 

Madame Red still refused to let him leave until he took care of one last client though. That's when Ciel walked over and stepped between them. "Jim, right? I was told you were Jim. I apologize for the inconvenience, but I'd like to have a five minute session with you if you don't mind."

 

Alois sighed and gave a half smile. "I'm busy right now, but alright.. Five minutes. Nothing more." He didn't seem too thrilled. 

 

Alois took Ciel by the hand and lead him to the same room from before, the crimson silk parting to make way for the both of them. His skin was so soft against Ciel's that the blue haired boy nearly melted as his heart beat out of his chest. 

 

Once the makeshift doors had closed, Alois tied them shut and pressed Ciel against the wall, kissing his neck roughly. "Take your clothes off quickly, or we won't have time." He said, whispering against the pale skin. 

 

Alois began to strip as Ciel slowly took his jacket off. He had to make this convincing, but he didn't want to take advantage of Alois. If it meant sleeping with him, he'd do it, but that wasn't what he really needed to do. It was more of a want for a different day. Not now.

 

After about thirty seconds, Alois had already gotten fully undressed and was waiting for the slightly younger male to finish getting undressed as he was. 

 

"So.." Ciel mumbled, "why the rush to leave?" 

 

"It doesn't concern you."

 

"I would like to think it does. You see, I like helping people and.. A gut feeling I have is telling me that you're distressed." He said as he tugged off his shirt oh so slowly. 

 

Alois realized that Ciel was taking too long and started unbuttoning his pants for him. "I'm perfectly capable of solving my own problems." Alois replied, grabbing Ciel by his hips and pulling him closer as the blond sat on the bed.

 

Ciel stumbled a bit and fell forward, pushing Alois back and pinning him to the bed in the process of trying not to bang his head against him awkwardly.

 

"But everybody could use help. I know many things that might help. I know about a girl who was bragging about stealing something from you.. And where she's at." Ciel said as Alois pushed down his pants and wrapped his legs around Ciel's hips. 

 

"Darling, you'll be a bigger help to me when you're finally done here. Now don't forget to pay." Alois said, pushing back slightly to show he wasn't going to let him have his way with the angel until he put the money in the jar at the bedside table. 

 

Ciel couldn't resist placing a kiss on Alois' lips as he grabbed the coins from his pocket and placed them in the jar. 

 

"Your time is a very valuable thing. If you let me help you, I'd be willing to give you something in return." Ciel mumbled as he placed his lips against Alois' neck and kissed hard.

 

Alois was already turning red with embarrassment. Nobody ever kissed when they could have something else on his lips. It was new.

 

Ciel positioned himself against Alois and finally did what he wanted, even if the day wasn't right and the setting wasn't ideal. He loved Alois, so he told himself it was okay. Even if he wasn't convinced of it. After three minutes of pure bliss for Ciel and Alois both, Ciel's vision went pure white as he bit down on Alois' neck. 

 

Alois, however, was not a big fan of the biting. But, he was getting paid, so it didn't matter. As a bit of blood trickled down his snowy white skin, Ciel got off of him and put his clothes back on and reclaimed the bag he forgot he had. 

 

Alois too got up and dressed himself. He wiped off the blood from his neck and untied the door at the same time. "Well, if that's all, I'll be going now." He said, taking a step out of the room.

 

"Wait," Ciel said, grabbing his wrist and painting slightly. He was worn out. But he still had a mission to do.

 

"Let go of me." Alois said, trying to show patience. But he had to leave.

 

"Not until you hear me out." 'It's the only way you'll survive..'

 

"I said let go." He said, trying to pull his wrist free from Ciel's grip. "I don't have time for you anymore."

 

"Jim, please it's important-" Ciel said, gripping his arms and turning him to look into his eyes.

 

And that's when Ciel knew he fucked up. Alois' eyes dilated and filled with tears as he screamed and tried to kick Ciel away. He triggered Alois to have a flashback.

 

+

 

_A boy with bright angelic blue eyes and sunshine gold hair with small angel wings sprouting from his back cried as a man he was supposed to trust held him down. He could feel the replusive breath against his neck as the older man's callus, rough hands forced down his pants. He could taste the disgusting taste of cigars and alcohol on his lips from previous forced kissed that nearly caused him to throw up._

 

_He knew it would be pointless to try to fight anymore. It happened almost everyday while his mother was gone. She'd been to the doctors so much because she was about to have another baby. He was excited for the baby too, but with his mother gone.. His step-father was to watch him. Alois hated his step father._

 

_The brash, large hands of his father found there way to where they weren't welcome and started to put there fingers inside places that hurt to Alois. It hurt every time, and it was going to hurt worse soon enough.._

 

_After a minute of his hands, Alois' step-father put in something much larger. It made him bleed as it was forced in. It made him scream and cry, but the older man forced those noises away with more kisses. It was horrible, he wanted to throw up blood and convulse on the floor and just die. Nothing felt right. The older, disgusting man kept at it for an hour. Or what felt like an hour, until he finally released inside his victim. By the time everything was done, Alois was absolutely repulsed by himself._

 

_Nothing was worse than what had just happened to him._

 

+

 

Alois looked Ciel dead in the eyes as tears streamed down the corners of his own. 

 

"Burn in hell, you fucking creep!" He yelled, raising his hand to Ciel's face  and shooting out a blaze of golden light. Everything faded out in a blur of shimmering golden sparkles as Alois ran away. 

 

When he came to, Ciel was standing in the same spot as Madame Red just laughed at him. Alois was gone and Ciel practically failed at his mission. He'd hurt Alois.. Because he'd been too forceful. The only time Alois ever trusted him was when he wasn't trying to get him to. Alois hated him every time he was pushy or overly romantic.. 

 

Ciel decided then that the affection he'd been trying to give would only work once Alois was comfortable first. That meant he couldn't meet him here. But he already had.. 

 

'I'm such an idiot!' He thought, turning to Madame Red and sighing. "Do you know why Jim started crying..? I just wanted to say something to him, I hadn't meant to get rough, but normally people get angry instead of cry-"

 

Madame Red nodded lightly and placed her hands down on the table. "It's not my place to say, but I'll tell you anyways since it seems like he's leaving after today. Alois was raped when he was thirteen by somebody close to him. It causes him to do strange things sometimes. If you ever see him again, never touch him. At least, not unless he touches you first."

 

Ciel bit his lip with guilt. He'd read about that before. People with pstd, sexual assault victims mostly, have flashbacks and triggers. You can't touch them without hurting them if it was really bad. It varies, though. Some are repulsed by sex, some repulsed by affection, others hypersexual and some just closed off from the world. 

 

He'd never do that again. He'd never force Alois to do anything he didn't want to do. 

 

'Dying isn't something he'd want to do either. Go save him already, bloody fool.' He reminded himself. 

 

"Thank you for telling me. If I ever see him again, I'll know to keep my distance." 

 

Madame Red just waved him away as he ran out of the door, making his way to the bar Freckles was. He was going to get that ring no matter what it takes.

 

\--

 

About ten minutes into his journey, he ran into a tall fellow with pure white hair and a pure white outfit to match talking to a slightly taller man also covered in white. 

 

"Phipps, do you think I could get that Midford prodigy to fight me or do you think she's too busy to do it?"

 

The slightly larger man, Phipps, sighed and mumbled out a "She's probably busy."

 

This made the first man laugh and draw his sword, holding it up defiantly. "Nobody's too busy for the great knight! If anything, they're busy with me." Conceited. But.. If he's a knight. That have Ciel the most brilliant idea. 

 

"Excuse me sir, but may I ask you a question?" 

 

"You just didn't, but I won't mind another. Charles Grey at your service, greatest knight in the kingdom, pleased to make your acquaintance." He nodded politely. He radiated ego, exactly what Ciel needed. 

 

"Are you great enough to defeat a demon?" Ciel asked, giving the puppy dog eyes he was now becoming infamous for. 

 

"Of course I can. Why wouldn't I?" He asked. 

 

"Well, you see, there's this demon going around trying to kill my friend. If you're strong enough, I'd like you to protect him for me. Unless of course, I'm wrong and you aren't."

 

"I totally am. Leave your friend to me. If you need to summon me, just scream for the guard. The doubles Charles specifically. Who knows if those other knights are strong enough, you know. Me and Phipps have this covered."

 

"Will you be there fast enough?"

 

"So long as you stay in the city, we can get there instantly." He winked, pointing to a medallion at his chest. "The knight guard is able to teleport anywhere in this city so long as somebody requests us." 

 

"That's actually really interesting. I'll call for you if I need you." He nodded and walked off as the two resumed their one sided conversation about a sword prodigy that Grey wanted to fight. 

 

Ciel had the rest of the walk to think about what could possibly be traded for that ring.. He didn't have anything but food, earbuds hastily shoved in his pocket, and his phone. The earbuds are useless without the phone.. But the phone- It might be worthless to use as a communications device here, but it could take photos, he had tons of apps, and a ton of music. He could trade that to get a valuable ring.

 

It was practically worthless to him here, and if he ever gets back home, he'll just get a replacement. That works.

 

At around 1 pm, Ciel ended up at the Noah's Ark Bar. As expected Freckles was sitting at the bar, bragging about the ring she stole from Alois to the red headed man who was cutting the food he'd stolen earlier into four pieces. Freckles took a piece, and so did the large man from behind the counter. The extra piece was moved to a plate for the fourth person as soon as they returned to their group.

 

Ciel watched the cute scene play out as he walked closer to the people he hardly knew, yet had memorized. He'd seen them all die before. Right here. That very night. And the two before that.

 

"Excuse me, but can I talk to Freckles for a moment?" He asked, sitting down at the counter next to her. The stools were a bit loose, but strong enough to hold a man. Just a little wiggly. And the counter looked to be made of a strong oak that was broken in some areas. It was perfectly clean too.

 

"Depends on whose askin'!" Freckles said happily, not fully in a tough guy attitude yet like she probably should have been. 

 

"I'm Ciel." He said politely, holding his hand out. "I'd like to inquire about making a trade for that ring you stole. I guarantee you'll get the better end of the deal."

 

"Oh? And what do you got that's so good?" Freckles asked curiously, turning her stool to look him in the eyes. 

 

"I have this." He said, pulling out his cell phone. "It's called a phone. It can take photos of anything you'd like, record any sound, and light up the dark. And it can play music for you wherever and whenever you want."

 

Freckles looked down at the device with doubt. "Do you think I'm stupid? That thing right there can do all that?"

 

"Aye," said the red headed man. Upon closer inspection, Ciel realized that the man had no arm. That's probably why he could escape him the first time Ciel ever saw him. "Give it a chance. It could be worth more than that there ring if it can do all he says.." 

 

Freckles nodded hesitantly and smiled. "Alright, show me. Joker's probably right."

 

"Jumbo, get this bloak a glass o' wat'r would you? He looks like he could use it."

 

The giant man, appropriately named Jumbo, walked over to the glasses and poured clean water into one as Ciel powered on his phone. 

 

"See, it requires a password on it to be opened, so I'll have to change it for you. It currently uses my fingerprint." He pressed his thumb to the screen lightly as the lock opened.  The home screen had a photo of Camilla from Fire Emblem that was only a little revealing. He pressed the camera app and took a photo of Freckles, then showed it to her and joker as Jumbo sat the water down next to Ciel. 

 

He said, "Thank you" to Jumbo as he moved from that app to the music app, playing the instrumental version of I Don't Care by Apocalyptica. While that played, he turned the flashlight option on and held it up so they could see that it lit up the dark too. 

 

"That's bloody amazing!" Freckles shouted, bouncing up quickly. Her hair stayed up for just a moment longer though, giving Ciel a clear view of a large scar over an eye she didn't seem to have anymore. 

 

"It's all yours on the condition that you give me the ring. Do we have a deal?"

 

Freckles nearly nodded excitedly, but Joker leaned forward said, "Wait a moment. We have other offers, you know. We can't just give it up like that."

 

"Unless, you accept my trade and whatever they would give you for that, you could trade this for much more." He said, leaning back. "The ring isn't that valuable afterall. Gold and diamonds are becoming common. I haven't seen a single noble without them. This, however, is one of a kind." 

 

He was right, and they knew it.

 

"Fine," Joker said, taking the ring from Freckles and putting it in Ciel's hand. "You got yourself a deal."

 

Ciel quickly changed the password from his thumbprint to the numbers 1105. He didn't know why he chose those numbers particularly, but they were the first on his mind. "The passcode is eleven, zero, then five. You can get on it only until the number right here," he pointed to the battery symbol, "gets to zero." 

 

But so far his phone hasn't lost any charge. It remained at a hundred percent the whole time. 

 

The phone was placed in Freckles hands as Ciel pocketed the ring. 

 

At that moment, Sebastian walked into the room. How did he get here early this time?

 

It was time for Ciel to leave, but a slight glimmer of recognition from Sebastian left him paralyzed. "You look oddly familiar.. Have I met you before?"

 

"No, you haven't. I'm new here. Now if you don't mind, I'm on my way home." But he didn't have a home here. That was a lie.

 

"But you've hardly had any of your drink," Sebastian said, eyeing the glass of water that rested in front of the chair Ciel was standing at. "Sit and talk with me for a moment."

 

Sebastian sat down next to where Ciel had been, watching as Freckles and Joker left with Jumbo. "I had business to attend to with them, but it can wait. You look far more interesting."

 

"I'm very dull, I've been told." Ciel said, taking a large gulp of his drink. That man killed him twice and it was hard to keep his cool. Did he see Ciel buy that ring? Is that why he wanted to kill him? 

 

"You look so, so interesting. Like somebody I've known before." Sebastian purred, tapping his sharp fingernails- almost claws, against the oak. "But it might just be your generic face and eyes. Blue is a common color."

 

"I happen to agree with the generic thing. Let's leave this ordeal at that." He stood, turning away from him and attempting to walk out the door.

 

But Sebastian grabbed the collar of Ciel's shirt and pulled him back. The black haired demon stood and held Ciel in a death grip, though he was only using one hand. 

 

Just as Ciel was about to scream for the double Charles, Sebastian gripped his mouth instead. "Now now, little lord. I can't have you screaming for help the moment I capture you." He grinned.

 

Sebastian slipped his hand inside Ciel's pocket and retrieved the Trancy family ring from the boy who'd bought it before him. 

 

"Now, for trying to get this- I'll have to punish you." 

 

Sebastian's hand moved down from Ciel's mouth to his throat, claws ripping the skin from his body and causing blood to gush out all over the floor. It should have been instant, but it wasn't. Everything was fading away again and he knew he messed up. But where? 

 

But next Sebastian made the mistake. He wanted to brag, so in Ciel's ear he whispered. "Next time don't tattle to the guards, they warn everybody. Especially about keeping a person safe from a demon threat.. Honestly, word travels fast. It didn't take much to add two and two.. To get you."

 

Ciel slumped forward, going slack in Sebastian's arms. The death count raised to three.

 

And back he was, at zero yet again.

**Author's Note:**

> Please give feedback if possible! This is my first fan fiction on Archive Of Our Own and I want advice from anybody possible to make this the best work it can be! 
> 
> This story is inspired by the anime Re:Zero; Starting Life In Another World. It's a bit of an au. The first chapter will be extremely similar to the anime's first episode, but after that it branches off into its own story that has some similarities plot wise, but will otherwise be it's own thing. I hope that this doesn't upset anybody, I just have the idea that I want to do and hopefully, it will be more different than the anime, but if it ends up being more similar than not, I think that would be okay.
> 
> There is no update schedule, but I promise I will never go two weeks without updating. And if I miss that, I promise I'll give bonus content to make up for it.


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